Elderly Couple Robbed By Neighbor's Son Who Asked To Borrow Salt

By: Christopher Feery | April 8, 2019

An elderly couple gladly complied when a neighbor came over to borrow some salt. That proved to be a gigantic mistake. The man ended up taking the couple hostage, and he demanded a serious amount of cash to bring their ordeal to an end. As the New York Post shares, the frightening scene played out in Tamarac, Florida.

Louis Rosen, 99, and his wife Irene, 70, were out on the back porch of their home. Their neighbor’s son, 45-year-old Leonard Benitez, approached them to ask if he could borrow a cup of salt to cook with. The couple was happy to help, and they welcomed Benitez into their home. Things immediately devolved into chaos.

Benitez would pull out a gun and a knife. He demanded that the couple provide him with their banking information so that he could withdraw $50,000.

“I was scared to death,” Irene recalls. “I am not a gun person. I've never been around guns.”

You would have to imagine that the couple was completely terrified by the much younger man brandishing weapons. Benitez would hold the couple hostage for about two hours, and he would actually pistol-whip the 99-year-old man in the head. We would imagine Benitez’s family is something other than proud.

Despite being absolutely scared out of her mind, Irene was able to keep her wits about her. She was able to escape from the home, but she had to temporarily leave her husband behind so she could get some help. Irene was able to alert the authorities, and Benitez fled the home soon thereafter.

Benitez didn’t go very far, as he attempted to hide out in the nearby home of a relative - the same relative with whom he claimed to be staying. A SWAT team quickly surrounded that home, and Benitez surrendered soon thereafter. Irene is trying really hard to keep things in perspective, but she remains shaken from the traumatizing ordeal.

“I try to think of the positive and say, 'What an adventure we had,' an adventure I could have done without,” she said.

Her husband was taken to the hospital to be treated for cuts to his head, but he seems to be doing ok. Benitez is not as fortunate. He’s currently being held without bond as he faces a slew of charges, which include home invasion, battery, false imprisonment of an adult and kidnapping.

No word on what kind of time he’s facing if convicted, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed that as many books as possible are thrown at him. Holding anyone against their will is an unconscionable crime that needs to be dealt with swiftly. The fact that he targeted an elderly couple should not be disregarded, as that’s a level of cowardice and callousness that’s incredibly hard to digest.

This is yet another disturbing sign that things can change in the blink of an eye, and that’s a disturbing commentary on all sorts of things. An elderly couple shouldn’t have to live in fear for their lives for any reason, let alone due to the actions of a disturbed neighbor that needs some cash.